Naked beauty

The idea of naked beauty may conjure up images of glowing fresh skin, freckle-speckled noses and naturally flushed cheeks, but cosmetics retailer Lush are challenging that perception. Instead they want people to think of naked beauty as products that are package free. Yes, sans an outer shell. The naked products avoids clogging up landfill sites with thousands of kilograms of plastic and waste packaging - making the environment a happier place.

“Packaging is rubbish and for too long we had had to suffer excessive amounts of it,” Lush co-founder Mark Constantine sighed to Cover Media. “Now that the true financial and environmental costs are becoming obvious, customers are challenging manufacturers and retailers to cut the wrap. Companies like ours need to think out of the box and present customers with innovations that allow them to buy truly naked products.”

Currently 35 per cent of all Lush products are totally unpackaged and naked; with the company promising the rest is on its way. Not only is it better for the earth to go package free, but the products themselves benefit as it decreases the likelihood that they’ll be full of preservative nasties. While these are often used to give products a longer shelf life, they aren’t always great fort your skin and overall health.

Everything from solid shampoo, solid toothpaste and solid moisturisers are now available completely naked, but for those who aren’t ready for the nude revolution, Lush also offers shoppers the black pot recycling scheme for its products. Simply take an empty black pot into store and Lush will recycle it, giving you a face mask to say thanks. Save the planet and have skin that glows? Yes please!

Other big names offer a similar scheme, including MAC’s Back to Mac drive, which sees the make-up brand give you a lipstick in exchange for six empty packages. Origins also take recycling seriously, and created the first ever container recycling programme in the industry. They also accept any brand’s products, and will gift you with a free one-time use sample of a product in return. Kiehl’s is another port of call, and offer a stamp for every empty Kiehl’s bottle returned. The more stamps you get, the bigger the treat is - ranging from a lip balm for three stamps to a selection of 250ml products with five or more.